Related "Mike Haridopolos" Articles

Don't look now, but swine are airborne, the damned are doing figure 8s in a certain suddenly arctic Southern clime, and the calendar reads the Twelfth of Never.
That's because Floridians Tuesday witnessed the improbable. The state Senate 'fessed up,...

Champ
David King: The lead lawyer for a coalition challenging the congressional districts passed in 2012 by the Florida Legislature, he persuaded a state Supreme Court majority to invalidate eight districts for violating the constitutional ban on drawing...

Last week, as my family gathered around a perfectly cooked turkey with crispy, garlic-rubbed skin and moist white meat, I gave thanks.
For my family. For our health.
And for Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes.
Why that last one? Because that chapter —...

TALLAHASSEE — For the second time in four years, Central Florida is once again taking hold of the gavel in the state Legislature.
Although they took different paths to get there, House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, and Senate President Andy...

TALLAHASSEE – Former House Speaker Dean Cannon says he sanctioned a secret meeting between legislative employees and Republican operatives because he wanted the 2012 re-drawing of political boundaries to be above reproach.
Cannon, a Winter Park...

TALLAHASSEE – A key aide testified Tuesday that bad blood in the Legislature led by two Central Florida lawmakers was the cause of some interesting email and back-channel use of lobbyists – not an underhanded attempt to undermine the 2010 Fair Districts...

TALLAHASSEE -- A Leon County judge has held three prominent Republican consultants in contempt for not handing over thousands of pages of private records detailing their work in last year's contentious redistricting fight.
Leon County Judge Terry...

TALLAHASSEE -- In the wide-ranging legal fight over Florida's 2012 redistricting maps, a Republican opposition research firm has asked a judge to keep its records blocked from public review.
Gainesville-based Data Targeting Inc., along with operatives...

They control some of the largest workforces, biggest budgets and loudest bully pulpits in town.And they can impact everything from your morning commute to your family's health care and entertainment options.They are Central Florida's power players. And...

Time for another round of hugs and slugs — this time in the spirit of Halloween, spotlighting some of the worst tricks and best treats of the past week.We start with a super-sized hug for the folks at Shepherd's Hope — one of Central Florida's most...

Today's Friday Files are psychedelic. •Newsweek recently cited a study that said, of all the state capitals in America, Tallahassee ranks No. 1 when it comes to pot-smoking. That explains a lot about what happened in this past legislative session. ...

I am amused by Rick Scott's claims of victory in this legislative session.
This was House Speaker Dean Cannon's party.
Scott entered the Governor's Office as a wildly firing cannon.
It was Cannon who aimed the cannon at the targets he wanted to hit,...

A lot to talk about in today's edition of Friday files, starting with the latest group of people getting hosed by Tallahassee — the mentally ill.
To be fair, it was probably their turn.
Florida politicians have already gone after the disabled,...

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — The Florida Department of Health on Friday announced it is going ahead with a disputed prescription drug tracking system to help close down "pill mills" that sell painkillers and other medications to drug dealers and...

If you don't like Rick Scott, wait three years and nine months and he should be gone.
That's according to the first poll taken since voters have had a chance to assess their new leader.
Generally, governors see an uptick in their popularity after...

Mike: Legislative sessions usually get as much attention as PBS documentaries. But that was before Rick Scott became the skinniest 800-pound gorilla ever to hit Tallahassee. We've never seen anything like this. No allegiances. No loyalties. No...

The new chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court on Friday formally created the Innocence Commission -- a panel of judges, lawyers and others to study why Florida courts have wrongly convicted at least a dozen people only to see them exonerated years...

Big Tourism vs. Big Oil is over in Florida, and Big Tourism won. Think of the remarkable inroads Big Oil made in Big Tourism's own backyard during the past two years and how close it came to planting new drilling rigs off Florida's coastline. In 2008,...

Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday that the state would set aside $800,000 for a statewide drug strike team to help law-enforcement shut down so-called "pill mills" as part of an overall effort to crack down on Florida's prescription drug-abuse...